Paph. niveum

Another plant of the small-sized Paph. niveum flowered. I have four of these small niveums which produce cute little flowers (about 2.5 cm across).

Flowering Now

Came home to find them in flower.
Above: Paph. philippinense

Below: Bulbophyllum limbatum

Bulbophyllum fascinator is really fascinating.

It is a native of Laos and Vietnam and has a large flower. Very easy to grow and flower in Singapore.

New Batch of Chattaladae

Many little Chatts in these flasks.

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi 'Red'

An extremely good quality Phal cornu-cervi 'Red'. This variety is now as common as the normal cornu-cervi but a good quality flower is still hard to come by. There is a very critical difference between this variety and the chattaladae variety. Can you spot the difference? Chattaladae is still rare in Singapore but very common in US and Taiwan. Recently a grower in Taiwan flowered a mutated plant which is almost entirely solid red, including the lip. You can see the pics here but please hold on to your jaw :- http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/max999-orchids/article?mid=4286&prev=-1&next=4249

Paphiopedlum philippinensis

This Paph. philippinensis is flowering again after the recent cold spell. The petals are just extending out of the flower bud this morning.

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi 'Dark Star'

This plant is always in flower unlike some other cornu-cervis which appear to be quite reluctant to produce flower spikes. This variety produces lots of flower spikes and even new keikis appear regularly on old flower spikes. Some nurseries and growers classify this as var. thalebanii but others disagree, citing other taxonomical authorities who state that it is just another form of cornu-cervi. Well, i am just a hobbyist but what i can say is that other cornu-cervis have no fragrance. This one has, although very faint.

Paphiopedilum Shireen #2

This is the second time the plant is flowering after being separated from the main pot. Paph Shireen is so free flowering in Singapore. It is also very easy to take care of; just a bit of shading in a well ventilated position will do.

New Phalaenopsis Hybrid

Haven't got the name of this hybrid yet. Bought it from WL a few weeks ago because the plant is very healthy and i could see that the buds are quite dark in color. The flower turned out to be very beautiful and i like its shape and form.

Vanda coerulea hybrid

This is an unknown vanda from Mr. Lim Song. Vandas have never been my kind of orchids mainly because i find the plant and flower too big. But sometimes the things you don't pay attention to may surprise you because many people find this flower extremely attractive. It has strong Vanda coerulea influence. Is it Vanda Cavananan x Coerulea??

Phalaenopsis violacea var. Malayan

This malayan violacea flowered again recently and helps the other violaceas and bellinas in providing the nice fragrance in my backyard. The color is deep although not evenly distributed.

There are a few recognised varieties of violacea; namely the Malayan, Sumatran and Mentawai form.

Phalaenopsis violacea var. Sumatra

Song Orchid recently imported some of these sumatran violaceas from Taiwan. There are a few plants with slightly different flower size, shape and also color distribution. I was lucky to choose two plants with very different color form. One is a pleasant pinkish purple form while the other is a pure solid purple form. This is the pinkish one:
The petals did not curve backwards 5 days after opening, unlike most of the others and the shape&color is quite pleasant. I took my chance with an un-opened first flower and it paid off.
Also, nothing beats the unmistakable strong fragrance of a violacea in the morning.

Another Paphiopedilum helenae X 肉餅

I bought 3 of this hybrid from Song Orchid and this is the flower of the second plant. It turn out to be a rounder form with more of the 肉餅 characteristics. I gave the third plant to Mrs. Koh and hopefully it will turn out different too.

Paphiopedilum helenae X 肉餅

The Taiwanese Paph growers use the term 肉餅to refer to complex hybrids with big rounded flowers. I bought a few plants of Paphiopedilum helenae X 肉餅from Song Orchids recently cause they are so cute and green. the green dot in the middle makes it look as though the flower is wearing a jade pendant.

Under natural light. Look better?

Dendrobium

This blue Dendrobium from Song Orchids recently produced lots of flowers. Too bad they are not scented.

Phal. Betty Leong X Teoh Tee Teong

A beautiful Phalaenopsis hybrid. It has its own charm although not as deeply colored as many recent hybrids.

Phalaenopsis Ambonosa

Took this picture under the sun.

Phalaenopsis bellina

A nice bellina.

Habenaria lindleyana

This is a commonly found Habenaria in Thailand. I bought a plant with lots of seed pods last year and sowed the seeds around the base of my lemon grass. About five plants appeared a few weeks later but most of them died except this one. The leaves hug the ground closely and the flower spike rise up from the centre of the leaves. The flower spike is about a foot and a half long and bears many pure white flowers. If seed pods are borne this time i am going to spread the seeds all over the place.

Close-up of the pure white flowers.

Dendrobium eriiflorum

Bought a bunch of these in October 2008 and after a year of growing them they are now flowering again. The beautiful flowers are small and greenish white in color. October is the flowering month according to the book "Wild Orchids of Thialand".

Phalaenopsis bellina

This is one of my favourite bellinas. The flower is big and its shape is above average.

Phalaenopsis violacea var 'alba'

This plant, a true wild violacea alba is from Mr. Lim Song of Penang. This is the first time it flowers in my place after i bought it about a year ago.

Phalaenopsis amboinensis var 'Common'

This plant was bought during the Singapore Garden Tech exhibition 2009. It may not be a winner in terms of shape but i like it because it has very nice markings.

Paphiopedilum schoseri

This is a plant from Bacan Island in the Moluccas of Indonesia. It belongs to the barbata section so it is not so easy to grow in singapore. This plant came with a single developing bud which managed to develop into a beautiful flower.

Paphiopedilum bellatulum

This wild plant flowered again recently. The newly open flower is so beautiful but in a day or two, the petals will curl backwards. This flower has beautiful dark purple spots on a greenish white background.

Paphiopedilums in Flower

A Paph. niveum with very small flowers. This is the first time the plant flower after i bought it from Song Orchids. The plant produced two small but cute flowers. One Paph seller said that this is a small flowered variety recently introduced in Thailand.

A concolor is also in flower now. This plant has dark green mottled leaves instead of the usual lighter green. The recent rain caused some of my paphs to develop bacteria rot but luckily some survived after soaking them in Physan solution.

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi fma. chattaladae #2

This is another plant of Phal. cornu-cervi fma. chattaladae. The flower on this plant is thicker and the color is more intense.

Coelogyne trinervis

This is a medium sized coelogyne that can be found in Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam as well as Sumatra so it is quite widespread. The flower has a musky fragrance which some people may dislike.

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi fma. chattaladae

A very good specimen of Phal. cornu-cervi fma. chattaladae. The color is solid dark maroon and evenly distributed without lines of uneven color. A plant with darker colored flower is opening soon. I will post the pic when the flower opens.

Phalaenopsis Chan Chee Meng x lamelligera

This is a hybrid made by Mr. Lim Song using his Phal. Chan Chee Meng and lamelligera. Phal. Chan Chee Meng is usually pure yellow and the lamelligera imparted very striking dark red bars onto the yellow making this a very stunning hybrid.

Dendrobium aphyllum

This very beautiful dendrobium flowered again. I think this Dendrobium flower more than once a year, unlike Den. anosmum which usually flower around February.

Paphiopedilum Western Sky x helenae

Just got them from Song Orchids.

Paph. Western Sky is a complex hybrid with insigne, charlesworthii, Leeanum, spicerianum etc in its parentage. Very messy to trace. Paph. helenae is a cute little orange coloured paph from northern Vietnam that requires cooler conditions than spicerianum. Hopefully having such a complex parentage would result in the plant being more tolerant to warmer conditions. One of the plant i selected is greenish with a purple line in the middle of the petals and sepals whereas the other is the usual form.

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi var 'Red'

This is a normal red cornu-cervi which came from thailand. There has been some confusion over the red variety and the chattaladae variety. The true chattaladae variety is very expensive and costs more than a thousand singapore dollars for a medium sized plant, about $1400. It is cheaper if you fly to thailand and bring it in yourself through the proper channels. It will cost you about $900 including your air-ticket and you get a nice holiday. A very good red will set you back one to two hundred dollars. A normal red is about $30-$50. I will post the picture of cornu-cervi var. chattaladae when mine flowers.

Phalaenopsis bellina

A rounded bellina from LMH nursery many years ago. Generally the bigger and more rounded the flowers are, the more expensive is the plant. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there are some growers who collects plants with 'ugly' features such as backward curving petals, thin petals or inward curving lateral sepals. These traits are found in most plants collected from the wild many years ago. Nowadays, wild plants are fast disappearing due to over collection and destruction of natural habitat.

phalaenopsis lamelligera

These two Phal. lamelligeras are in flower now. One of them has bold markings while the other has a mixture of blotches and stripes. This species is very similar to Phal. cornu-cervi.

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi

This is a Phal. cornu cervi with a jade green background and lightly spotted. Against a background of green dendrobium leaves, the green tone of this cornu cervi can be seen.

Another Paphiopedilum spicerianum

This is the flower of another plant of Paph. spicerianum. This flower has better colour than the other two posted earlier.

Phalaenopsis Amber Delite

The leaves of this plant suffered some fungus attack a few months ago. Luckily it recovered and started to flower again.

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi alba

After a long resting period, this cornu-cervi alba decided to flower again.